eReader

Those who like to read digitally have likely heard of Oyster, the monthly subscription service geared towards avid readers. At $9.99/month, getting the most out of Oyster is easy if you read one or more books monthly. If you don’t, you might have wondered why you’re subscribing — why not just buy books as needed? It’s a crossroads many have found themselves at, but you no longer have to leave Oyster if you’re not interested in subscribing. Today, Oyster is launching an eBook marketplace, where you can buy digital copies of books.

Kobo is looking to spank Amazon where it hurts, launching the Kobo Glo HD ereader with the same e-paper display as the Kindle Voyage, but dramatically undercutting it on price. Set to hit shelves from May 1st, the Glo HD uses E Ink's 300dpi Carta panel, just as the Voyage does, for smooth text and monochrome images. However, whereas the Voyage will set you back upwards of $199.99 depending on whether you mind Amazon subsidizing it by showing you adverts, Kobo will be asking just $129.99 for the Glo HD.

Splitting Nook from Barnes & Noble may not be a good idea for the digital branch after all. In releasing their fourth quarter earnings, Barnes & Noble showed an overall positive holiday quarter, but Nook is bringing them down. Nook revenue fell 55% over last year, casting doubt on which of Barnes & Noble’s two halves (physical or digital) is really failing. Nook’s earnings count digital devices, eBooks and accessories. That includes the Samsung Nook, which was meant to resurrect the brand with regard to hardware.

This week the folks at Barnes & Noble announced that they'd be buying back the shares of Nook they'd sold over the past several years. This began with an October 2012 investment by Microsoft of $300 million dollars to create Nook Media LLC. Two months later, British education and publishing company Pearson purchased a stake in Nook for $89.5 million. Both companies have now sold their shares back to Barnes & Noble, and Barnes & Noble once again owns 100% of the ereader brand they created in the first place.

This morning Barnes & Noble's NOOK family expanded with an app that'll turn the audio on with books. The NOOK Audiobooks App is the first "no-commitment" app from Barnes & Noble to offer audiobooks for both Android smartphones and tablets - that means no subscription costs or anything - and it'll be released by the ned of this week. This release will not be limited to any one brand of Android smartphone or tablet, while Barnes & Noble will continue to offer their Samsung Galaxy Tab NOOK devices through the future.

Ebooks aren't the only thing Amazon's Kindle ereaders can get wirelessly, with the big online retailer pushing out new features to give extra insight into tricky words along with Family Library ebook sharing. Hitting the Kindle Voyage, $79 Kindle, and Kindle Paperwhite automatically over the next few weeks, the updated firmware enables Word Wise among other new tech, floating definitions over trickier words so that children and non-native-speakers can get a head-start on understanding without having to tap through to the regular dictionary.

Samsung's latest Nook-branded iteration on its Android tablet line-up has been announced, with Barnes & Noble putting the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 10.1 up for sale in-store. Following the existing 7-inch Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, released back in August, the new version has - unsurprisingly - a bigger, 10.1-inch HD display, but also introduces a new Nook Software update which improves the UI, as well as promising a better overall shopping experience. Existing Samsung Nook tablet owners shouldn't worry, however, as Samsung has something for them, too.

In the market for a new ereader? Amazon's hoping you'll opt for a Kindle Voyage, with the 300dpi digital book we reviewed yesterday beginning to ship to pre-order customers, alongside its new tablet siblings, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 and the Fire HD Kids Edition. Voyage is, as we ourselves found, certainly Amazon's best E Ink Kindle to-date, but that technology also comes with a hefty price tag attached.

The ebook didn’t kill the paperback, and Amazon is counting on the fact that not only hasn’t the tablet killed the ereader, but that there’s still room for a premium model in the shape of the Kindle Voyage. Fronted by an incredible e-paper display, Amazon’s smartest screen illumination system to-date, and a bevy of software enhancements focused on readers, it’s certainly shaping up to be a great home for your digital 50 Shades. In a world of free Kindle apps and $249 iPads, however, the Kindle Voyage needs to do more than just pack in the pixels in order to justify its existence.

There are a lot of Android tablets on the market. It’s a dizzying array of screens, processors, manufacturers, and price. One OEM is bowing out of the race, and will instead focus on a segment the tablet was unable to kill off entirely: eReaders. Kobo has announced they are focussing their efforts on the digital book, as well as software. The move toward eReaders aligns Kobo with their true passion, which is digital reading. Their software keeps them at home on the tablet you already own.

Though most of the products introduced by Amazon today fall into the tablet category, the Internet retailer has also unveiled a proper ereader, the Kindle Voyage. Amazon is hailing the Voyage as its "most advanced" ereader, and joining it is the less expensive new Kindle with touch functionality.

Amazon is apparently readying a new ebook reader, with the Kindle Voyage seemingly set to replace or at least upgrade the Kindle Paperwhite very soon. The new model is yet to be officially announced, but premature listings on several of Amazon's regional sites have given an early glimpse of the details, including new controls for page-turning.